Rumsfeld, trained apes and half a million dead

Flag as inappropriate

Unconvicted Iraq war criminal Donald Rumsfeld emerged from blessed obscurity Tuesday to say this about President Obama's foreign policy acumen: "A trained ape could get a Status of Forces (SOF) Agreement. It doesn't take a genius". Rumsfeld was referring to Obama's failure so far to get that agreement allowing US soldiers to stay in Afghanistan as advisors after December 31, 2014, the official end to our criminal Afghan war directed by former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. So far Afghan President Hamid Karzai has resisted a SOF Agreement, in part, over US insistence Afghanistan give immunity to US soldiers who commit crimes against Afghan citizens. Aside from the racial implication of likening a black president to an ape, which surely resonates with millions of anti Obama racists, Rumsfeld hurled one of the most despicable charges ever against a sitting president by a former high ranking official. Rumsfeld, a human being who does have a genius for uttering truly horrible comments regarding war and death, famously had this exchange with a soldier during a 2004 PR appearance before US soldiers in Iraq:

Army Spc. Thomas Wilson: "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles? And why don't we have those resources readily available to us?"

Rumsfeld: "It isn't a matter of money. It isn't a matter on the part of the army of desire. It's a matter of production and capability of doing it. As you know, ah, you go to war with the army you have---not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.---You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and it can (still) be blown up."

Translation: "We conquered Iraq on the cheap; we didn't prepare you for occupation resistance; and some of you will die as a result"

It's OK for Rumsfeld to spout his insanity and madness...as long as it's from a prison cell after his conviction and sentencing for war crimes.